Wikipedia

Draft:Jerome Rankin Wallace

Jerome Wallace (born June 1, 1931 in Portsmouth, Ohio) is an American artist known for his contemporary batik techniques. He has been credited as an artist who revived the ancient art of batik and developed it to contemporary ends.[1] His work in batik primarily took place in Anahola, Kauai, Hawaii.[2]

Education and early career edit

Wallace attended Carnegie Institute of Technology and Texas Christian University,[3] but did not earn an MFA degree until 1994 when he was 63 years old from the University of Hawaii. He worked as a dancer in New York and Hollywood, CA before an injury forced him to other interests.  In Hollywood, Wallace formed Artistic Laborers, a business providing services to artisans, and emerged as an expert in colors and dyes, textiles and clothing. He moved to Kauai in 1962, Wallace settled in a seaside shack and started exploring batik making.[4]

He provided colorful batik fabric to designer Dallas Sprigg of Star of Siam for women’s fashion in 1966[5][6] and in 1972, he designed fabrics for Tahiti Imports fashion firm.[7]

He became recognized artistically as a young master by an executive of the Norwegian Arts and Craft Museum who visited an art gallery in Hawaii and then organized various exhibitions in Scandinavia in 1968.[8][9]

Career edit

Prior to his work in Kauai, Jerome Wallace spent months in Bali, Indonesia, learning the original batik techniques from the natives.[6][10]

 
Jerome Rankin Wallace, Batik

He came to Kauai in the early 1960's and besides making art, he practiced meditation and yoga, in a cottage near Anahola where clean waters flowed from a mossy stream-fed chute of Waipahee Slide, a remnant of a slippery lava tube.[11] He used hand-woven silk and applied colors and dyes in resist technique derived from the plants, earth and sea creatures found on the island of Kauai, Hawaii.[3] He created yellow dye from the cotton blossom, Gossypium tomentosum, commonly known as maʻo, huluhulu or Hawaiian cotton, the Kukui nut (Aleurites moluccanus) at different -stages provided red and rust and when mixed with soot and oil, brown and black.[10] Orange was derived from the core of the avocado seed; yellow orange from certain barks, Noni bark (Morinda citrifolia) and kukui bark produce the yellow-oranges and greens from lichens such as Xanthoparmelia mougeotii, and mosses all collected and processed by the artist, Jerome Wallace in preparation for his batik pieces.[2] He obtained the purple color from a sea snail, Janthina janthina that comes in as a host with Portuguese man o' war in the same manner as the Romans extracted dye called Tyrian Purple.[1][12][13] He also made purple from a combination of birch bark, elder, cochineal, cudbear- a dye extracted from orchil lichens and orchid.[14]

 
Detailed image of "Owch!" by Jerome Wallce

To prepare the fabric Jerome Wallace soaked it for a month or longer in heated coconut milk to make the material receptive to colors. He waxed the material with local beeswax,[12][14] and then made accordion folds that radiate from the center of the fabric.[15] Many of the batiks were of grand scale, one created for the Kauai Museum measured 40 feet by15 feet in length.[8]

Lee Nordness, an art dealer who founded the Nordness Gallery on Madison Avenue in New York[16] and who organized the international traveling exhibitions of American art and crafts for Johnson Wax, said in 1968 that Wallace was "one of the greatest batik men in the world".[17] In 1970, James W. Foster, director of the Honolulu Academy of Arts, said that Wallace "raised the ancient batik medium to a new level of technical and aesthetic achievement".[8]

Personal life edit

March 1986, Soho Too Gallery in Honolulu, Hawaii held an exhibit for Jerome Wallace and Gwen Lux, an American sculptor known for her abstraction and frequently constructed from polyester resin concrete and metals.[18] Jerome Wallace and Gwen Lux were married by the time of her death in August 1986.[19]

Major exhibitions edit

  • 1967 Kauai Museum, Lihue, Kauai, Batik artist Jerome Wallace and Irving Jenkin[20]
  • 1967 Norwegian Museum of Decorative Arts and Design Kunstindustrimuseet Norway[21][22]
  • 1968 Stravenger, Kunstiforeningen, Norway[23]
  • 1969 Objects, USA, "Objects: U.S.A.," which toured the United States and Europe from 1969 to 1973[16]
  • 1970 The Taft Museum, Cincinnati, OH[24][25]
  • 1970 The Wichita Art Museum, Wichita KS [26]
  • 1971 Fort Lauderdale Museum of Arts, Ft. Lauderdale Florida[27]
  • 1971-72 La Societe des Amis de la Bibliotheque Forney and Les Services Culturels Americains presented at the Hotel de Sens, the National museum Crafts of France[1][7]
  • 1972 Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts[28]
  • 1974 Moss, Norway Gallery F 15[29]
  • 1974 Ibsen House, Skien Norway[30][31]
  • 1975  Stavanger Kunstforeningen, Norway.[32]
  • 1981 The Edward-Dean Museum’ North Gallery, Riverside County Art and Culture Center, Cherry Valley, CA "Under Saturn’s Influence” a retrospective of batiks by artist Jerome Wallace[33]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c "Jerome Wallace, exhibit in Paris". Oakland Tribune. 1972-01-16. p. 143. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  2. ^ a b Goodman, Robert B and Daws, Gavan and Sheehan, Ed. (June 1970). The Hawaiians. Norfolk Island, Australia: Jonathan Rinehart Island Heritage Ltd. pp. 233–235.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ a b Nordness, Lee (1970). Objects: USA. Works by Artist-Craftsmen in Ceramic, Enamel, Glass, Metal, Plastic, Mosaic, Wood, and Fiber. New York City: The Viking Press, Inc. p. 275. ISBN 670-52013-6. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: length (help)
  4. ^ "Article clipped from The Honolulu Advertiser". The Honolulu Advertiser. 1993-03-29. p. 21. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  5. ^ "Article clipped from the Honolulu Advertiser". The Honolulu Advertiser. 1966-01-23. p. 61. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  6. ^ a b "Jerome Wallace, Batiks, "The Happy Hermit"". The Honolulu Advertiser. 1966-04-01. p. 39. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  7. ^ a b "Article clipped from the Honolulu Advertiser". The Honolulu Advertiser. 1972-05-29. p. 19. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  8. ^ a b c Eyre, Cynthia (January 1970). "Jerome Wallace: Zipper on the Generation Gap". Honolulu Magazine: 28–31, 48–52.
  9. ^ "Nasjonalbiblioteket". www.nb.no. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  10. ^ a b "Jerome Wallace Batik Artist". The Wichita Eagle. 1970-11-22. p. 22. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  11. ^ Starbird, Ethel A. (November 1977). "KAUAI, The Island That's Still Hawaii". National Geographic. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  12. ^ a b "continued article on Jerome Wallace, Batik". Oakland Tribune. 1971-06-13. p. 163. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  13. ^ "Hawaii Batik Artist Jerome Wallace Wins Recognition in Paris" (PDF). Congress.gov. 1972-04-12. pp. 12545–12546. Retrieved 22 February 2024.
  14. ^ a b "Article clipped from Oakland Tribune". Oakland Tribune. 1971-06-13. p. 162. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  15. ^ Meilach, Dona Z. (1973). Contemporary Batik and Tie-Dye Methods, Inspiration, Dyes. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd. pp. 54–55, 71–73, 152. ISBN 0047300221.
  16. ^ a b Reif, Rita (1995-05-23). "Lee Nordness, 72, Art Dealer Who Promoted Crafts, Dies". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  17. ^ "Jerome Wallace, "one of the greatest batik men in the world."". The Honolulu Advertiser. 1968-12-29. p. 17. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  18. ^ "Jerome Wallace exhibits with Gwen Lux". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. 1986-03-24. p. 19. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  19. ^ "Obituary for Gwen LUX". The Honolulu Advertiser. 1986-08-27. p. 10. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  20. ^ "Curriculum Vitae". Irving Jenkins. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  21. ^ "A Finding Aid to the Jerome Wallace papers, 1875-2012, bulk 1970-2012 | Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution". www.aaa.si.edu. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  22. ^ "Nasjonalbiblioteket". www.nb.no. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  23. ^ "Nasjonalbiblioteket". www.nb.no. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  24. ^ "Batiks by Jerome Wallace exhibition catalog, 1970, from the Jerome Wallace papers, 1875-2012, bulk 1970-2012 | Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution". www.aaa.si.edu. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  25. ^ "Jerome Wallace, 1970". The Cincinnati Enquirer. 1970-07-12. p. 132. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  26. ^ "Jerome Wallace, Batiks exhibit at Wichita Art Museum". The Wichita Eagle. 1970-12-06. p. 34. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  27. ^ "Jerome Wallace Batik at Ft. Lauderdale Museum of Arts". Fort Lauderdale News. 1971-01-31. p. 135. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  28. ^ "New York Public Library / All Locations". legacycatalog.nypl.org. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  29. ^ "Nasjonalbiblioteket". www.nb.no. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  30. ^ "Nasjonalbiblioteket". www.nb.no. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  31. ^ "Nasjonalbiblioteket". www.nb.no. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  32. ^ "Kunstnerforbundets utstillinger. Del 7: 1971-1980 by Anny Bo Fremmerlid - Issuu". issuu.com. 2020-11-09. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  33. ^ "Jerome Wallace Retrospective of Batiks". The Desert Sun. 1981-09-25. p. 62. Retrieved 2024-03-03.

Further reading  edit

  • Nordness, Lee. Objects: USA. The Viking Press, 1970.
  • Meilach, Dona Z.. Contemporary Batik and Tie-Dye. London. George Allen &Unwin Ltd. 1973.
  • Goodman, Robert B and Daws, Gavan and Sheehan, Ed. The Hawaiians. Directed and photographed by Robert B. Goodman. Text by Gavan Daws and Ed Sheehan. Designed by Harry Williamson. Edited by Jonathan Rinehart Island Heritage Ltd. [Norfolk Island, Australia] 1970
  • Hawaii ETV Network, Directed by Dave Gallagher in 1970 "Jerome Wallace: A Batik Experience." YouTube, uploaded by Beth Py-Lieberman, May 7, 2019,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpZwScHDtks
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